The present invention relates to road reconstruction equipment and, more particularly, to a method for depositing pavement reconditioning materials on a roadway. Since their debut in the late 1960s and early 1970s, asphalt milling machines have been considered one of the major innovations in road reconstruction. Asphalt milling machines were originally designed to remove a top layer of deteriorated asphalt so a new layer of asphalt could be overlaid on the exposed underlayer. The resulting pavement was superior to simply overlaying a new layer of asphalt directly onto the old and deteriorated asphalt.
One significant benefit of asphalt milling machines that has emerged modernly is the ability to break up asphalt into recyclable-sized fragments. As recycling of all types has become more popular, asphalt milling machines have similarly increased in popularity.
One core component of most modern asphalt milling machines is the cutting element. Most cutting elements incorporate numerous cutting teeth to cut or tear into the road surface. In cutting elements comprising a generally cylindrical drum, the rotational axis of the drum is frequently positioned parallel to the road surface and the drum is rotated while being driven along the road surface in a direction transverse to its axis of rotation. Conventional cutting drums mill the asphalt in an upward direction, or an “up-cut” direction. However, some cutting drums may permit “down-cutting” to control “slabbing,” and facilitate pulverizing and mixing.
Due to the abrasive nature of pavement, the cutting teeth traditionally wear out quickly and require frequent replacement. The replacement process may create significant downtime and hinder the overall efficiency of the milling process. Consequently, considerable effort has been expended to accelerate the replacement process and to increase the durability of the cutting teeth. Many newer cutting teeth, for example, are coupled to the cutting drum using various bolt-on housings to enable faster replacement.
U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/164,947; 11/163,615; and 11/070,411 to Hall et al., which are all herein incorporated be reference for all that they contain, disclose systems to milling and repaving paved surfaces in situ.